Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said he respected Mayawati and addressed her as “bua (maternal aunt)” while the BSP chief retorted that it would be an “insult” for her to call him her younger brother.

The UP CM’s remarks were an apparent bid to tone down Mulayam Singh Yadav’s sexist comments on Mayawati.

On Wednesday, the SP chief had in Faizabad said he was not sure if he should refer to Mayawati as “Srimati, Kunwari Beti or Behen”.
Mayawati had termed Mulayam’s statement as anti-women and casteist and said he should be in Agra mental asylum

At a rally in Bahraich, Akhilesh said: “Once (her) statue was shaken by someone and the statue broke. It was re-installed. We gave her respect….I call her bua because all my elders refer to her as behenji.”

Mayawati, who was addressing a rally in Roorkee, hit back saying there was “Laluaraj”(child’s regime) in UP.

She said she would consider it her “tauheen (disgrace)” to consider Akhilesh as her younger brother “as he is the one who has a low mentality towards great saints and gurus (of whose parks have been built by her government).”

In Allahabad, PWD minister Shivpal Yadav reportedly made objectionable remarks about Mayawati and her relationship with BSP founder Kanshi Ram, and said she has lost her mind and needs treatment.

BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Misra said nothing dignified could be expected from Shivpal and other SP leaders.